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Film REVIEWS
CRIME THE SWEENEY (15) 112min ●●●●●
Do policemen really have offices like that? Can ramifications have repercussions? What would be the gender-reversed equivalent of a Ray Winstone/Hayley Atwell love match? Will anyone ever do a make-up job on poor ginger Damian Lewis that doesn’t make him look as if he has been basted with shoe polish around the eyes and hair? Where, oh where, is Danny Dyer, and is he OK? Many questions trouble the mind as Nick Love’s contemporary reboot of the beloved British cop show unspools; but on the whole, the much-reviled director of such blokey romps as The Football Factory and The Business has made a decent fist of turning The Sweeney into his sort of thriller – even without his usual go-to scamp Dyer.
The crime backstory is a haphazard, unfollowable fankle involving Serbian bank robbers and London lowlifes and, I don’t know, a boat; but the fraught internal relationships between Winstone’s foul-mouthed, fist-happy
Flying Squad detective Jack Regan and his variably corrupt colleagues provide sufficient plot, and the action sequences have verve. Love’s peculiar, clashing take on form and content – raw language and grimy characters framed by lovely shiny surfaces, nice colours and showy compositions – also lends the film a diverting degree of theatricality. As Regan’s partner George Carter, Ben Drew
(aka musician Plan B) is truly impressive: sympathetic, natural, yet persuasively menacing when required. Tongue-in- cheekness is present but thankfully not over- bearing. This is a compact, undemanding film that feels – with its join-the-dots characterisation and its preponderance of glassy office interiors – more like a TV episode than a fully-fledged movie. It won’t rehabilitate Love in the eyes of his many detractors, but nor will it disappoint the devoted fanbase he has built. Apart from Danny Dyer. He’s probably a bit disappointed. Watch your back, Plan B. (Hannah McGill) ■ General release from Wed 12 Sep.
ARTHOUSE DRAMA TABU (15) 118min ●●●●●
Portuguese director Miguel Gomes’ distinct follow-up to Our Beloved Month of August is in fact two films rolled into one – both of completely different genres. The first is a contemporary-set story of Pilar, a kind-
hearted woman living in Lisbon who grows concerned for her neighbour Aurora, a paranoid woman who believes her Cape Verdian maid Santa is conspiring against her. When Aurora is admitted to hospital she requests that they track down a man called Ventura, who Aurora knew many years before. On finding Ventura he reveals the story of Aurora’s youth in Africa. This story makes up the second part of the film, a melodramatic, silent era-style endeavour.
This unusual structure provides a delightful and rich juxtaposition, the two halves complementing and convers- ing with each other on themes of memory and colonial- ism. In addition, the ravishing cinematography makes Gomes’ film a wonderfully cinematic experience. Tabu is a rare work that manages to draw on the past while creat- ing something that feels very modern indeed. (Gail Tolley) ■ Selected release from Fri 7 Sep. See interview, page 18.
APOCALYPSE Archives
This month sees the release of director JAMES MARSH’s (Man on Wire, Project Nim) tense IRA drama Shadow Dancer. Here he contributes to the Apocalypse Archives and tells us the five films he would save if faced with the end of the world.
1 Elephant (Alan Clarke, 1989)
‘It’s one of the best films, along with The Battle of Algiers, ever made about an armed conflict: it shows how relentless, exhausting and pointless the killings were in Northern Ireland. The director, Alan Clarke, is best known for his politics, but he should also be known for his technique. This is a brilliantly made film.’ 2 Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)
‘I saw this as a teenager on television, late at night, when I was just 14. It was such a revelation seeing a film which occupied a person’s point-of-view. It really showed you what it was like to go mad. It may not be my favourite Polanski film, but it made a huge impression on me.’
3 Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
‘This showed me that cinema can take the viewer into realms of dream-like perversity. It’s so sexy and exciting and troubling, and it’s beautifully made. Like many of the great works of cinema, like Vertigo and Peeping Tom, it explores what it means to be a voyeur. I’ve now seen it dozens of times, and I’ve loved every moment.’ 4 Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris, 1978)
‘All human life is in this Errol Morris film, which is the story of two pet cemeteries in America. It’s about hope and disappointment, and how you live your life. It showed me as a documentary- maker, that you have to let the people you interview talk and really listen to them. I like to spend time with my interviewees beforehand, make a connection with them and earn their trust.’
5 Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)
‘For me this isn’t up there with say Bunuel or Renoir in terms of cinematic greatness, but in terms of being a film to sit down and enjoy, it’s hard to beat. Shot for shot, it has so much energy and ambition – it’s such an exuberant piece of film-making.’ (Interview by Gail Tolley) ■ Shadow Dancer is on general release from Fri 24 Aug. Read a review of the film on page 53.
23 Aug–20 Sep 2012 THE LIST 55